Toeing the Line #8: at NCAA Championships
11/18/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
Nov. 18, 2015
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THIS WEEK
Saturday, Nov. 21 -- at NCAA Championships (Louisville, Ky.), Noon
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• Event Home | NCAA Championship Field | Course Map (6K) | Spectator Information
Under the guidance of 24th-year head coach Mike McGuire, recently named NCAA Great Lakes Regional Coach of the Year for the ninth time in his tenure, the sixth-ranked regional champion University of Michigan women's cross country team will be eyeing a strong return to the 6,000-meter NCAA Championships on Saturday (Nov. 21). The 36th annual women's championships will be at run at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Kentucky, where the Maize and Blue won the Greater Louisville Classic (Oct. 3) and Pre-Nationals (Oct. 17) meets earlier this season.
Junior Erin Finn led U-M in both of those meets, as she has in the last 11 consecutive scored meets in which she has competed. Finn was the individual Big Ten champion two weekends ago in Chicago (Nov. 1), becoming Michigan's second athlete with multiple individual conference titles (Katie McGregor, 1997-98), and the first Big Ten athlete to accomplish the feat since Wisconsin's Erica Palmer (1999-2000).
Michigan's travel squad will include: Claire Borchers, Erin Finn, Sophie Linn, Jamie Morrissey, Shannon Osika, Anna Pasternak, Jaimie Phelan and Gina Sereno.
For Linn, Morrissey and Borchers, this weekend's NCAA Championships would be their first NCAA Championships experience.
The NCAA Championships will include 31 teams and 38 individuals overall. The top two teams in each of the nine national regions automatically qualified and an additional 13 teams were selected to receive at-large bids.
Tom Sawyer State Park is a 369-acre park and the site of five previous NCAA Cross Country Regional competitions, and the 2012 Division I NCAA Championships. It is located on the outskirts of the Louisville metropolitan area. The park is made up of several rolling fields that used to be farmland.
THINGS TO KNOW
• Under head coach Mike McGuire, U-M has placed first or second in the conference in 19 of 24 seasons and top two in the region in 13 of the last 18 seasons. Michigan is seeking its 14th top-10 NCAA finish.
• U-M is familiar with the E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park, where the Wolverines won the team titles at the Greater Louisville Classic (Oct. 3) and Pre-Nationals (Oct. 17) meets earlier this year.
• The Maize and Blue has been nearly unbeatable this season, accumulating a 109-1 mark this fall, including a 17-1 record against ranked opponents. This has cultivated the No. 6 ranking for U-M in the latest USTFCCCA Coaches' Poll.
• The Wolverines captured the 10th regional crown in program history on Friday (Nov. 13) at the 6,000-meter NCAA Great Lakes Regional. Six Wolverines garnered all-region honors, the highest number since 2004, and U-M was paced by junior Erin Finn as the team took its second regional title in the last three years.
• Finn has the opportunity to become the seventh Wolverine in U-M history to earn multiple All-America honors.
• Michigan's lineup includes seniors Shannon Osika and Anna Pasternak, who have four NCAA Championship races under their collective belt.
• In 2012, E.P. 'Tom' Sawyer State Park was the site of the closest finish for the top-three finishers in NCAA history. In the women's championship race, Iowa State's Betsy Saina (19:27.9) won the race, Dartmouth's Abbey D'Agostino (19:28.7) took runner-up honors and Oregon's Jordan Hasay (19:28.7) placed third. There was only 0.7 seconds separating the national champion from third-place finisher.
• Michigan's travel squad includes four athletes with NCAA Championships experience.
Top Returning Times from the 2014 NCAA Championships
| Athlete | Time |
| Erin Finn | 20:40.3* |
| Shannon Osika | 20:56.6* |
| Anna Pasternak | 21:23.7 |
| Jaimie Phelan | 21:29.4 |
| Gina Sereno | 21:56.7 |
* = Time is from 2013 NCAA Championships; did not compete in 2014
2014 meet was run in Terra Huate, Indiana, at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course
TWEET OF THE WEEK
Last weekend, @erinefinn was asked about Coach McGuire's impact on his student-athletes, in training and in life: pic.twitter.com/ywP77SxPGa
-- Michigan Track&Field (@umichtrack) November 17, 2015
Communications Contact: Chad Shepard
Players Mentioned
